1874.] DE. riNSCll'S 'DIE PAPAGEIEN.' 279 



Further notice of Mr. Hume's criticisms in connexion with this species might be omitted did 

 they not comprise the following gross personal insult to Dr. Finsch : — " Orange yellow wing- 

 spot birds are common enough, and if he will pay the postage and return the specimen, I will 

 send him one to look at" {t. c. p. 17). To the word '■'■return," printed in italics, is appended Ibis, 1874, 

 this footnote, with Avhich, I much regret, I must soil these pages by transcribing : — " This is not '^' " 

 a matter of course, because a naturalist who begins by appropriating his neighbour's species, may 

 end by annexing their specimens. As Dr. Finsch would doubtless say ' Facile* descensus, etc. ! ' " 



Having delivered himself of this magnanimous sentiment, with its playful insinuation of a 

 felonious tendency in Dr. Finsch, a passage which will only escape the indignant reprobation of 

 all high-minded men, when it escapes observation, Mr. Hume proceeds to discuss Dr. Finsch's 

 treatment of Palwornis scMsticeps, Hodgson. After another offensive personality, a wretched joke 

 about " his sensitive classical nerves ! " Mr. Hume quotes and criticises thus : — " ' According to 

 Blyth ' (and he might have added Hodgson who described the bird, Jerdon, and a dozen others), 

 ' the females are only distinguished by the absence of the red-brown wing spot.' Blyth of course 

 being no authority any more than other Indian ornithologists, Dr. Finsch continues, ' I am much 

 more inclined to conclude that the red-brown spot would appear also in the full plumaged 

 female,' in other words he through his supreme wisdom without having examined a single bird 

 in the flesh, is intuitively better acquainted with the state of the case than skilled practical 

 naturalists who have dissected scores" {t. c. p. 17, 18). Then comes in, as a l)eus ex macldnd, 

 the great, frequent dictatorial Ego f , with ponderous yet impotent effect. " Let me tell Dr. Finsch, 

 that I personally must have sexed some thirty specimens of this species, and that the following is 

 my experience " {I. c). Of the " experience " which follows, not having been published when 

 Dr. Finsch wrote, it is unnecessary to give more than the first sentence, " The female always wants 

 the deep maroon red wing-spot," because it relates to the point in dispute and does not strictly Ibis, 1874, ] 

 accord with either Jerdon or Blyth's account. Jerdon says " a marone wing-spot in the male, '^' 

 barely indicated in the female " (B. Ind. i. p. 261) ; Blyth, " The adult sexes differ in the male 

 having a small maronne spot on the wing, which is wanting or barely indicated in the female " 

 (J. A. S. B. 1850, p. 232). So that even according to both Jerdon and Blyth the small maroon 

 wing-spot of the male, though barely indicated, does " appear " in the female. But Dr. Finsch 

 must be judged by what he, through a diligent and conscientious study of their published 

 writings, had gathered that his authors personally knew, and not by what Mr. Hume, in more 

 than exaggerated terms, says they did know. And although the fact may surprise my readers, 

 in the face of Mr. Hume's audacious assertions just quoted, it is a fact that neither Jerdon, when 

 he wrote the first volume of the ' Birds of India,' nor Blyth were well acquainted with this 

 species. Nor is there up to 1868 a tittle of published proof that any "skilled practical 

 naturalist" had dissected a single specimen of this species, much less "scores." Jerdon writes 

 [t. c. p. 2G1) "rare in the south-east, for I never saw it myself, and got but one young specimen 



* ^\Tiat Dr. Finsch would " doubtless " have said, had he been quoting Virgil, is given in the errata. 



t It may be here mentioned, as a matter of dry statistical detail, that apart from copious extracts from Dr. Finsch 

 and Captain Hutton, and besides a host of " me's " " we's " " my's " and " us's," the first personal pronoun " I " occurs in 

 the twenty-eight pages of this review at least one hundred and sisty-sis times. 



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